For the Honest
by IronAmerica
Summary: Let it never be said that Danny Matheson is weak. Fourth in the "For the Faithful" series.


Hey, it's a new story! Danny may be the nice one, but don't touch his sister. Just...don't.

Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.

- o – o -

For the Honest

Danny Matheson is not weak.

Even as he's being dragged around by the collar around his neck, or his hair, or his shirt, he doesn't scream. Even as one of Major Neville's men drags the first knife along his ribs, Danny says nothing. The teen's perfected the idea of patience. He has endless reserves of calm. According to his guards, as he's dragged back to his cell, he's spooky and a little freak. Danny smiles at that, and begins to play up the idea that he disturbs people.

It starts working. Soon even Major Neville looks nervous when he has to come interrogate Danny. Danny sits ramrod straight in the chair, unfettered and completely still even as the door opens, and continues to stare at the wall. He doesn't even seem to breathe.

Every question Major Neville asks is answered with a biting truth. Danny returns to his position of upright, utter stillness after each blow.

The questioning goes on for weeks. Danny spends a lot of time on the floor of his cell, bruised face pressed against the cold stone. It's soothing. General Monroe visits him frequently. The man promises so much if Danny will just give them something the interrogators can use against Rachel, the woman who pretends to be Danny's mother. Danny says nothing. He's starved for his defiance.

Charlie is in his cell a few days—or maybe it's weeks—later. Danny smiles weakly up at her through swollen eyes. His nose is broken, and he thinks his cheekbone has been fractured as well.

"….you came…" Danny whispers, before he passes out in his sister's arms. He sleeps through most of the events that transpire around his Uncle Miles, a man he's never even met. Danny struggles as he's dragged away from Charlie one day. General Monroe is waiting for him in a room connected to his office.

It takes eight guards to hold Danny down as Monroe approaches him, holding a needle full of some green liquid. Everything goes fuzzy and hazy as whatever is in the needle is injected into his blood and the needle is withdrawn. Charlie and Aaron are by his side in an instant—or maybe it's a few hours later—sitting on either side. There's another woman there. Her name is Nora. She's gagged. Danny watches with bored, detached interest, as Uncle Miles hits Charlie and sends her crashing to the ground. He falls to his side on the plush sofa as Aaron goes to Charlie. Charlie's nose has broken again, and she has a new bruise on her cheek.

After that, everything changes. Danny and Charlie share a room in President Monroe's palatial home. Aaron is just down the hall, closer to the library in their secluded wing. Danny tells Charlie about their mother, and her treason. Charlie promises not to trust her. Danny knows his sister won't—where the interrogators failed with him, Strausser succeeded with Charlie.

Danny discovers the extent of what happened to Charlie during the seven days of her captivity with Strausser in full. He knows she was raped, tortured, and chained out on a bridge for the world to see. Danny just doesn't realize how far the damage goes until he and his sister eat breakfast one morning.

Charlie rushes to the bathroom, one hand over her mouth. Danny knows what it means, and he realizes, with a sinking feeling, that he knows there's no way to safely remove the cause of her distress. The teen holds his sister as she sobs. He rubs her hair and tells her pretty lies to keep her from panicking while she's still so distressed—the eggs were bad, the fruit was rotting, she's allergic to almonds, there's too much food for them to handle and it's so rich on top of that.

The young man tracks his uncle down. He finds Jeremy first. Jeremy has heard stories of how unnatural and terrifying Danny Matheson can be. It doesn't disturb him—while Danny may be well-known, it was his uncle who perfected the idea. Jeremy leads him to Uncle Miles anyways.

"Charlie's pregnant."

Danny watches with a less than amused look as Miles and Bass begin choking on their coffee—it's the real deal, not the ersatz brew his father favored. Miles recovers first. Jeremy looks after Bass, who's red in the face and still trying to recover.

"What do you want us to do about it?" he asks. Danny scowls and picks up a knife from the breakfast table. The dull, pointed bit of silvery metal gleams in the light streaming in from a window. He doesn't like it, because it won't do the job properly, if it does at all.

"I need a bigger, sharper knife than this one," Danny replies. The three men sitting at the table pale as he smiles. Danny learns, later, that it's the same smile Miles has on his face as he orders people in front of firing squads—Miles enjoys the killing. It gives him peace. His smile is a sight to behold as people drop like flies, dead. Danny brushes the comparison aside. While his uncle is a butcher, he is merely going after one man.

Jeremy brings him a large folder of knives later in the week. He laughs as he tells Danny about Miles' threats to Bass if Bass doesn't do something about Strausser. Danny rolls his eyes and continues picking through the knives, looking for the appropriate one. He doesn't care if Uncle Miles cockblocks General Monroe for here to eternity. It won't fix Charlie. It won't fix anything. And besides, General Monroe can turn to Jeremy for comfort if he needs it, so it's not an effective punishment.

Danny finds Strausser in the man's apartment. It's small, well-ordered, and tidy. There's a large collection of knives on the wall. The knife on Danny's hip looks insignificant in comparison. All it takes is a few well-chosen words and a small truth (I like knives; can I hold one?) to get Strausser to let him in. Strausser puts an arm around Danny's shoulders, comradely and warm, and begins showing him the truly impressive collection. It takes the teen's considerable self-control to not vomit as he hears graphic descriptions of each murder that has been committed with the knives.

The teen fakes a pleased smile as Strausser pets his hair, smiles as the man tells him he looks like Charlie. He focuses on the knife at his hip as Strausser inhales the scent of his hair, pulls morosely at the short strands and tells him he should grow it out to look like Charlie does. (This is Danny's proof.) The teen is flush against Strausser, back pressed against the man's chest and groin, can feel the man's arousal. (This is what Danny needed.) Strausser spins Danny around as the teen giggles like a besotted schoolgirl over a story about how Strausser killed a man with a knife—a long, serrated hunting dagger that took six hours to cut a man apart. Strausser kisses the teen, forcing his tongue into an all too willing mouth. (This is Danny's opening.) Strausser rocks against Danny's hip, one hand sliding down the front of the boy's trousers, the other grasping at Danny's rear. (This is where he acts.)

Danny throws Strausser against a wall and is on him in a second, one arm pressed against the man's throat to cut his air away. The knife he brought with him—a beautiful piece with a serrated edge and a cruel hook at the tip—is pressed against Strausser's balls. Danny smiles sweetly at the look of fear in Strausser's eyes.

"Pray that my sister somehow forgives you, because you'll never sire another bastard."

Danny leaves Strausser in his apartment, clutching at his pants and whimpering. Blood seeps between the man's fingers, staining his trousers dark with rich red blood. Danny licks the blood off the knife, making sure the man who raped Charlie can see him as he closes the door to the apartment.

He manages not to throw up until he reaches home, and the safety the sumptuous apartment he and Charlie live in together. Charlie, belly still flat, sits next to him, just rubbing his back. They share their memories and hold each like they did when they were small. It's the best they can do.

Charlie comes back to their apartment a few days later, holding Danny's favorite knife.

"Now we're even," she says, smiling as she licks the blood off the blade. Danny smiles. They really are a perfect pair. Their uncles teach them the proper way to geld a man later, laughing as Charlie and Danny succeed in the lessons.

And Danny keeps the knife close to him for the rest of his life.

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Is Danny an epic li'l brother or what? Drop a line and let me know!

Also: ALMOST TO 80K! WOOOOO! *flails; dies of exhaustion* Why no, I haven't been drinking coffee lately. Why do you ask...?


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